I've got some beer on ice for you the next time you venture north of the Red River.

--------------It's natural to be curious about our world, but the scientific method is just one theory about how to best understand it. †We live in a democracy, which means we should treat every theory equally. - Steven Colbert, I Am America (and So Can You!)

So Owl wrote...and this is what he wrote: HIPY PAPY BTHETHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY Pooh looked on admiringly. "I'm just saying 'A Happy Birthday'," said Owl carelessly. "It's a nice long one," said Pooh, very much impressed by it.

Have a good one and many more! Texas needs more teachers born the day after me.

--------------Flesh of the sky, child of the sky, the mindHas been obligated from the beginningTo create an ordered universeAs the only possible proof of its own inheritance. † † † † † † † † † † † † - Pattiann Rogers

--------------"Random mutations, if they are truly random, will affect, and potentially damage, any aspect of the organism, [...]Thus, a realistic [computer] simulation [of evolution] would allow the program, OS, and hardware to be affected in a random fashion." GilDodgen, Frilly shirt owner

Thank you everyone. I had a very nice day. My present was having all of the principals out of the building, so I got to teach unmolested for a day. My big party plans for the weekend involve taking my 4 year old and 2 year old daughters trick or treating. I get to watch them have a great time and then share a few choice treats.

Bob, my students were delightful today. Teenagers can occasionally be very sweet. A few of them even agreed to study tonight for their test tomorrow.

Louis, yes. Yes it is. Why, what did you hear?

--------------"Creationists think everything Genesis says is true. I don't even think Phil Collins is a good drummer." --J. Carr

Except for grasshoppers - Australia has much bigger ones of those than Texas!

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We have three for a school of less than 500. Don't get me started on all the district administrators we have to manage the various aspects of teaching to the state test, practicing for the state test, managing the administration of the state test, and processing the data from the state test.

As for Australian grasshoppers, we do have something bigger. They're called mosquitoes. They are also our state bird.

--------------"Creationists think everything Genesis says is true. I don't even think Phil Collins is a good drummer." --J. Carr

--------------I wouldn't be bothered reading about the selfish gene because it has never been identified. -- Denyse O'Leary, professional moronAgain "how much". I don't think that's a good way to be quantitative.-- gpuccio

Happy Birthday. I met some Texans in the 1980's when Aussies where the flavour of the month. The line that has stayed with me is when one of them said to us "Y'all sure talk funneh"

That reminds me of the time I was part of a group of Unitarian teenagers who traveled to Boston. (Kind of a "look kids, liberals who don't have to wear fake glasses/mustaches" trip). While at a Red Sox game we had a lovely chat with the locals in the outfield during a rain delay. A friend of mine told them he wished he had their accents. On of the guys responded in what I had always assumed previously was what actors did to exaggerate the Boston accent, "Nah, keep what you've gaht".

--------------"Creationists think everything Genesis says is true. I don't even think Phil Collins is a good drummer." --J. Carr